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For the next part of Gaming Under The Radar I decided to go with Shadows of The Damned, a third-person shooter resulting from a collaboration between Goichi Suda (No More Heroes, Killer7) and Shinji Makami (Resident Evil, Devil May Cry).  The game shares a lot of similarities to resident Evil 4 in terms of gameplay, as you follow demon hunter Garcia Hotspur into the depths of the underworld to save his true love in a humorous and gory adventure.

Despite the pedigree of its producers and other established names in the gaming industry (composer Akira Yamaoka for example, famous for his work on the Silent Hill franchise) the game sold very poorly, with only about 50,000 units being sold in North America in the weeks after its release.  It’s hard to understand why as the following review will hopefully explain.

Gameplay

Shooting sheep heads for light adds a unique element to the game

As mentioned, Shadows of The Damned plays a lot like Resident Evil 4.  Fleming, the Lord of Demons, has abducted Garcia Hotspur’s girlfriend Paula to be his mistress and it’s up to you to get her back with the help of your trusty sidekick – a talking skull named Johnson.  You play from a third-person perspective throughout most of the adventure, and the controls are fairly standard and easy to get to grips with – on the Xbox 360 version LT and RT aims and fires respectively, X reloads your weapon, A is to dive out of the way of enemies and RB fires a blast of light.  The reason for that is in the underworld darkness understandably consumes everything quite regularly, and the light shot serves as a way of dispelling said light.  To do so you have to aim at glowing sheep heads before your health runs out, which adds a challenging element to the game.

Unfortunately it’s not all good news here, as some annoyances are present throughout Shadows of The Damned.  The most prominent annoyance comes by way of side-scrolling elements here and there, which sees Hotspur and Johnson inexplicably thrown into a paper-thin world where the objective is to clear the area before you’re swallowed up by the scrolling screen.  Fortunately only about three levels of the game’s 25 acts (five chapters split across five acts each) are dedicated to having to endure this, but nonetheless it’s an annoying experience and one that’s unnecessary.  Also at certain times you’re chased by a demon version of Paula, which took me several attempts to get through each time.  As soon as she touches you she gives you a kiss of death and it’s game over, and she runs as fast as Hotspur does.  Yes, Hotspur can sprint by pulling the right trigger but he doesn’t have a whole lot of stamina, slowing down mere seconds after you’ve built up enough speed to put some distance between him and his possessed girlfriend.  What makes the experience worse is that cutscenes cannot be skipped, and it can get irritating having to sit through the same three minute sequence everytime you’re killed.  Overall though the gameplay here is solid and enjoyable.

Score – 7/10

Graphics

The violence is delightfully over-the-top

I was surprised by the graphics in Shadows of The Damned.  On the one hand they’re far from cutting edge, but the rough-around-the-edges approach gives a real grunge-type feel that compliments the overall style of the game.  The gore is hugely over-the-top but something you’ll never tire of seeing, pulling of a first time headshot treats you to a satisfying close-up of the damage you’ve just inflicted upon your enemy and the gradual dismemberment of body parts is immensely satisfying.  The character animations are generally smooth with the exception of some demons, but I’m quite sure this is deliberate.  I only encountered one or two minor glitches during my playthrough but it’s nothing bothersome.

Score – 8/10

Sound & Music

Akira Yamaoka lent his brilliance to Shadows of The Damned immediately after resigning from Konami in 2009, and his work is nothing short of fantastic.  The music featured throughout your adventure is astounding and easily one of the highlights of the game, and the gruesome sound effects are as violent as you’d expect them to be.

The voice cast generally does an excellent job as well, the voices behind Hotspur and his sidekick Johnson in particular are excellent and the two characters have great chemistry as a result of that.

Score – 9/10

Value

I completed Shadows of The Damned in about eight hours, which is pretty standard for a game in the action adventure genre.  It sports three difficulty settings but unfortunately no New Game+ or anything along those lines, it’s not essential but I would have liked to have kept my ammo and weapon upgrades when trying out the harder difficulties.  The game is very linear as well so each playthrough will be identical to the last but with harder demons to face so as enjoyable as this game is it’s probably worth a rent over a purchase, at the moment the game sells for about £25 which in the UK is about right for a game that’s been available for as long as this one has.  That is still quite a lot of money for a game that doesn’t have a whole lot of replay value and can be completed over a weekend but for the completionists reading there’s still enough collectables to find to keep you occupied and a memorable experience awaiting all players.

I suggest waiting until the game falls to under £20 (or the equivalent in your currency) or indeed renting it, Shadows of The Damned is a massively fun game that’s been criminally overlooked and deserves a lot more recognition.  It’s just a shame there wasn’t slightly more on offer to keep me coming back for more.

Score – 7/10

Overall Score – 31/80 – 78%

As a means of reviewing old-ish and not well known games, the purpose of this post (and others to come) is to share with you those games that slip under the proverbial radar – for all the Call of Duties, Forza and Fifa’s there are many other quality titles that are overlooked for a variety of reasons, so hopefully this will give you an insight into those titles.

We’ll start with Sonic & Sega All-Stars Racing, a game that was released in late February 2010.  It’s a kart racer similar to the likes of Mario Kart and Crash Team Racing featuring various characters from many Sega franchises, with an array of weaponry and tracks to use and explore.

Gameplay

In terms of gameplay, this aspect of Sonic & Sega All-Stars Racing is top notch.  The vehicles (mainly motorcycles or cars) handle excellent on the tracks, and the items you can pick up are easy to use but lack in originality and variety.  There are several missile-based weapons, a speed enhancer, a couple of items to disorientate fellow racers and a few others available, but none are particularly worth using as the damage inflicted is usually minimal.  The only power-up worth getting is if you’re trailing the pack in a race, if you’re lucky you’ll receive an ‘All-Star’ item and essentially charge through the field into a respectable position.  This is a cool feature and very useful for young children who might struggle with the game.  The tracks themselves however are very varied, with plenty of exciting courses to race around time and time again.  There are quite a few available at the start of the game with many more to buy with accumulated ‘Sega Miles,’ which are earned based on your performances throughout any race, mission (more on that later) and time trials.

Score – 8/10

Graphics

Graphically the game is also superb, with vibrant settings and an almost immaculate attention to detail.  The racers, vehicles and tracks all look fantastic, there isn’t a whole lot that could be improved.  Sure, it’s no Gran Turismo, but for a cartoon kart racer this is about as good as it gets.

Score – 10/10

Sound & Music

Moving on to sound and graphics, this is somewhat of a letdown to me.  The sounds effects are decent enough and the race commentator is entertaining enough, but I can’t help but feel Sega missed the boat when it came to the music tracks accompanying the action.  They have a whole wealth of quality and nostalgic tracks at their disposal and used very little of it, it’s a real shame.  You can purchase additional music tracks with the aforementioned Sega Miles, but unfortunately there’s not a whole lot of point.

Score – 6/10

Value

Sonic & Sega All-Stars Racing gives you excellent value for money overall.  There’s an extensive Grand Prix mode and innovative missions to undertake – anything from grabbing 100 coins in 60 seconds to a ‘last-place-drops-out’ race where whoever is in last position during a race after a 30 second period is eliminated.  There are 64 of these to complete in which you’re graded from F up to AAA, and getting the maximum grades across all missions will certainly take some doing.  The standard multiplayer modes are present as well, but unfortunately this aspect of the game could and should have been better.  I’ve yet to play the online side of multiplayer so I can’t comment on that, but local multiplayer is lacking certain features I’ve come to expect in this sort of game.  There’s no co-op grand Prix for starters and the standard arcade race doesn’t give a true leaderboard based on whatever position you finished; rather whichever player finished above the others earns a point and this continues until you get bored.  It’s all a bit of a shame as the multiplayer mode could have offered so much more, but overall Sonic & Sega All-Stars Racing is a worth purchase and one of the better so-called Mario Kart clones available.  You can get it for about £12 as well, so for fans of Sonic, kart racers or those who have young children or siblings this is an ideal game for all the family.

Score – 8/10

Overall Score – 32/40 – 80%

What I have been doing in my spare time is creating a few gaming and anime related t-shirts.  I’ve always wanted to own these sort of t-shirts but as I’m rapidly approaching my late 20′s I can’t help but feel I’d be embarrassed by wearing an outright Gears of War or Dragon Age kind of thing, so what I decided to do was create a few of my own that (in my opinion at least) look pretty snazzy but at the same time only the most die-hard of fans will recognise.

So, with that in mind here are the five I’ve come up with:

This is entitled ‘Cloud & Materia‘, which is self explanatory.  The shirt features Final Fantasy VII primary protagonist Cloud Strife along with the main materia categories – plus Holy/Meteor.

Next up is the N7 logo found in the Mass Effect franchise, with a grunge effect.  Looks best in black but a variety of colours are available.

This is a Brimstone Beach Club t-shirt, which fans of The Secret of Monkey Island (the third one) might be familiar with.  It’s the beach where Guybrush Threepwood annoys the cabana boy and attempts to get a map from the back of Palido Domingo.  The logo is also available as a sticker.

This is the first of two anime t-shirts, this one featuring the current crew from One Piece along with Portgas D. Ace.

Finally, this shirt design is inspired by Spirited Away, specifically the coal-carrying sprites that provide heat for the bath house.  Obviously looks best in black but a variety of colours also look sexual.

Right, that’s all of them for now.  The cost is a little confusing so I’ll break it down as best I can for our British, European and American friends.

In the U.K…

Individually each shirt costs £13.07, and buying one has a shipping charge of £2.90 bringing the total cost to £15.97.

Buying two shirts has a shipping charge of £3.90, bringing the total cost to £29.83.

The purchase of three shirts has a shipping charge of £4.47, bringing the total cost to £43.68.

Buying four shirts gets you free shipping, brining the total cost to £52. 28.

In mainland Europe…

Individually each shirt costs €15.03, and buying one has a shipping charge of €3.66 bringing the total cost to €18.69.

Buying two shirts has a shipping charge of €4.56, bringing the total cost to €34.62.

The purchase of three shirts has a shipping charge of €5.46, bringing the total cost to €50.55.

Buying four shirts gets you free shipping, brining the total cost to €60.12.

In the United States…

Individually each shirt costs $21.59, and buying one has a shipping charge of €3.66 bringing the total cost to $26.91.

Buying two shirts has a shipping charge of $6.62, bringing the total cost to $49.80.

The purchase of three shirts has a shipping charge of $7.91, bringing the total cost to $72.68.

Buying four shirts gets you free shipping, brining the total cost to $86.36.

You can check out my portfolio for any new updates here, and as always any comments and opinions are most welcome.

The show started with an extended look at a single-player campaign level from the latest game in the Call of Duty franchise, Modern Warfare 3.  It looked typically exciting with lots of explosions and gunfights, but from that footage alone it seemed like more of what fans of the series have seen before.  Of course it’s impossible to judge based on that alone, but early signs indicate there might not be as much new content to this game as people might expect.

The Tomb Raider reboot looks interesting

A reboot (basically completely restarting from scratch) of Tomb Raider was up next, showcasing Lara Croft’s daring escape from captivity in a large cave.  The gameplay starts with our heroine suspended and cocooned upside-down, and the player then swung her body to set fire to the rope suspending her and thus setting her free.  We were then treated to several quick time events (QTE’s) as Lara attempted to make her way through her captors lair, twice being nearly captured.  The game looks visually excellent but I’m hoping it’s not too reliant on QTE’s, it’s definitely something to keep an eye out for though.

From here on out despite being mere minutes into the conference the focus switched almost entirely to either Kinect titles or Kinect-supported games for the Xbox 360, starting with Peter Moore from EA Games announcing four sports titles with Kinect functionality – Tiger Woods PGA Tour, Madden NFL, FIFA and a currently unannounced final title, my money’s on their next NBA Basketball game.

Dr. Ray Muzyka then came on stage to talk about Mass Effect 3, and demonstrated the Kinect abilities that game will also feature.  Basically you can expect voice support in both dialogue and battles, which seemed to be well received by the audience in attendance but personally I’d feel a bit silly screaming “LIARA! TAKE COVER!” during the heat of battle.  Still, that is an optional feature but still one I doubt I’ll be using.  The game is released on March 6th next year.

A trailer for Ghost Recon: Future Soldier was the next game to be introduced by Yves Guillermot, a game that was shown in detail at last years’ E3.  This year Mr Guillermot mainly wanted to discuss the new Kinect features the game will incorporate, which includes voice commands, arm gestures (like reaching over your shoulder to arm yourself) and a rather cool looking gun customisation feature.  It’s obviously very gimmicky but I think this could be the game that shows how Kinect functionality should work in first-person shooters.   Guillermot also announced that all future Tom Clancy games will feature some kind of Kinect support as well.

The next set of announcements centred around new features for the casual entertainment aspect of the Xbox 360 and Kinect, which includes:

• A new dashboard
• YouTube integration
• Live TV channels
• Live UFC streaming, with a betting scoring system against your friends
• A virtual Disneyland experience with various themed games

FIST BUUUUUMP!!!

The Disneyland game was certainly memorable for all the wrong reasons, mainly due to the kids playing it under strict instructions to act as cute and over-the-rop as possible.  They ended with the boy shouting “FIST-BUUUUUMP!” which has most likely already become in internet meme.

Fortunately a sense of normality was restored after the fist bump incident, featuring a co-op gameplay demo of Gears of War 3 by Cliff Bleszinski and Ice-T, followed by trailers for a first-person fighting Kinect game entitled Ryse (formerly Codename: Kingdoms), the rumoured Halo remake being confirmed with enhanced graphics and online multiplayer, Forza 4 with Kinect ‘head tracking’ and voice commands, Mincecraft (with Kinect support of course) and the previously shown Star Wars game with plenty of arm waving.

Peter Molyneux also announced Fable 4, which this time will be played from a first-person perspective for the benefit of Kinect users.  It’s ‘on rails’ (much like the Star Wars game) which means the game will automatically take you to where enemies are situated and once you’ve disposed of them you’ll move on to the next bunch.  Wisely Molyneux didn’t ramble on about cutting edge features, revolutionary gameplay or the fact that he does indeed have the ability to excrete solid gold blocks, much like almost every title his company Lionhead studios has made since its birth 10 years ago Fable 4 will probably not live up to whatever hype Molyneux decides to give it.  I think he’s finally realised it’s not a good idea to do that though.

Tim Schafer was next out on stage to play his latest family game entitled Sesame Street: Once Upon a Monster.  Once again an over-the-top child came on stage to play it with him, but as you can imagine the game itself didn’t particularly interest anyone.  It’ll obviously be great if you want to play a video game with a very young child, but for those of us who either don’t have kids, do over the age of about 5 or like to bring up their offspring the old fashioned way with reading books, toy cars or indeed taking them to play outdoors Sesame Street definitely won’t be for you.

My Fozzy t-shirt came out well on Kinect Fun Labs

Kinect Fun Labs was the next Kinect feature by Kudo Tsunoda in his trademark enormous sunglasses, which will see various tech demos of features the Xbox community and games developers have made to share with other people.  Currently you can make your own realistic looking avatar, although it’s currently unusable as a replacement for what you already use.  I can see why as that makes the majority of the avatar shop completely pointless, but in turn that makes the feature itself completely useless other than for the initial five minutes you’ll spend trying it out.  It does work quite well though, my face looked a little weird due to light coming in through a window on my right side, but the fact that it picked up my Fozzy band t-shirt almost flawlessly was impressive.  I’d love to be able to use that as my proper avatar but that probably won’t be likely unless Microsoft charge something like 240 points for the privilege. The finger tracking demo looked cool although as I type this it’s currently not available for us to try for ourselves, and finally there’s an object scanning feature that I haven’t had an opportunity to try yet.  Results from the Internet community seem to be mixed, with some people having trouble scanning in even the most simple of objects.

Following that were demonstrations of Kinect Sports Season 2 and Dance Central 2, which as expected made good use of exactly what Kinect is supposed to be used for.  Kinect Sports obviously features new sports games to play and Dance Central 2 sees two players dancing together at the same time rather than one after the other as you can only do on the original Dance Central game.

Halo 4 was the last game to be announced at Microsoft’s conference, apparently the “dawn of a new trilogy on Xbox 360″ due out late next year.  More information along with gameplay footage will probably be shown at next years E3, but for now it’s something for the fans of the Halo series to look forward to.

On the whole I thought Microsoft dedicated far too much time to Kinect, despite selling millions of units worldwide it’s not something the general E3 viewership either own or have any interest in owning.  The fact that Microsoft are gradually steering the 360 in the direction of casual family entertainment is worrying, seeing as Nintendo already cater to the casual gamer and Sony already have entertainment functions in the form of a Blu-Ray player on their Playstation 3.  As a result I was left less than impressed by Microsoft’s showing, as someone who personally isn’t really a fan of Halo, Call of Duty, Gears of War or shooters in general I was left disappointed by the end of it.

Here’s are the publishers that will definitely be exhibiting at E3 2011, along with the games that they’ve confirmed to be released within the next year or so.  Updates will be made to this post regularly with any updates, and be sure to check out the list of rumoured games further down the page.  As always comments are welcome, specifically with what you’re looking forward to seeing or what you’d like to be announced.

2K Games:
BioShock: Infinite (PS3, Xbox 360, PC)
The Darkness II (PS3, Xbox 360, PC)
Duke Nukem Forever (PS3, Xbox 360, PC)
XCOM (Xbox 360, PC)

2K Sports:
NBA 2K12 (PS3, Xbox 360)

Activision:
Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3 (PS3, Xbox 360, PC)
Prototype 2 (PS3, Xbox 360, PC)
Skylanders: Spyro’s Adventure (PS3, Xbox 360, Wii, PC, 3DS)
Spider-Man: Edge of Time (PS3, Xbox 360, Wii)
X-Men: Destiny (PS3, Xbox 360, Wii, DS)

Atlus:
Catherine (PS3, Xbox 360)
The Cursed Crusade (PS3, Xbox 360, PC)

Bethesda:
The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim (PS3, Xbox 360, PC)
Prey 2 (PS3, Xbox 360, PC)
RAGE (PS3, Xbox 360, PC)

Capcom:
DmC (PS3, Xbox 360, PC)
Resident Evil: Operation Raccoon City (PS3, Xbox 360, PC)

City Interactive:
Sniper: Ghost Warrior 2 (PS3, Xbox 360, PC)

Codemasters:
Bodycount (PS3, Xbox 360)
F1 2011 (PS3, Xbox 360, PC)

D3 Publisher:
Earth Defense Force: Insect Armageddon (PS3, Xbox 360)
White Knight Chronicles II (PS3)

Deep Silver:
Dead Island (PS3, Xbox 360, PC)
Risen 2: Dark Waters (PS3, Xbox 360, PC)

Devolver Digital:
Serious Sam 3: BFE (PS3, Xbox 360, PC)

Disney:
Cars 2 (PS3, Xbox 360, PC, Wii, DS)
Phineas And Ferb: Across The Second Dimension (Wii, DS)

Electronic Arts
Battlefield 3 (PS3, Xbox 360, PC)
FIFA 12 (PS3, Xbox 360, PC)
Kingdoms Of Amalur: Reckoning (PS3, Xbox 360, PC)
Madden NFL 12 (PS3, Xbox 360, Wii)
Mass Effect 3 (PS3, Xbox 360, PC)
NCAA Football 12 (PS3, Xbox 360)
Need For Speed: The Run (PS3, Xbox 360, PC, 3DS)
NHL 12 (PS3, Xbox 360)
The Sims 3: Generations (PC)
SSX (PS3, Xbox 360)
Star Wars: The Old Republic (PC)

Ignition:
El Shaddai: Ascension Of The Metatron (PS3, Xbox 360)

Konami:
Silent Hill: Downpour (PS3, Xbox 360)

LucasArts:
Star Wars Kinect (Xbox 360)

Microsoft:
Forza 4 (Xbox 360)
Gears Of War 3 (Xbox 360)

Namco Bandai:
Soul Calibur V (PS3, Xbox 360)
Tekken X Street Fighter (PS3, Xbox 360)

Nintendo:
The Legend Of Zelda: Skyward Sword (Wii)
Super Mario 3DS (3DS)

SEGA:
Anarchy Reigns (PS3, Xbox 360)
Binary Domain (PS3, Xbox 360)
Sonic Generations (PS3, Xbox 360)

Sony:
inFAMOUS 2 (PS3)
Ratchet & Clank: All 4 One (PS3)
Resistance 3 (PS3)
Starhawk (PS3)
Twisted Metal (PS3)
Uncharted 3: Drake’s Deception (PS3)

Square Enix:
Hitman: Absolution (PS3, Xbox 360, PC)
Kingdom Hearts 3D (3DS)
Tomb Raider (PS3, Xbox 360, PC)

Tecmo:
Ninja Gaiden III (PS3, Xbox 360)

Telltale Games:
Back To The Future: The Game Episode 5 (PS3, Xbox 360, PC)
Jurassic Park: The Game (PS3, Xbox 360, PC)
Puzzle Agent (PS3, PC)

THQ:
Metro 2033: Last Light (Xbox 360, PC)
Saints Row: The Third (PS3, Xbox 360, PC)
uDraw Studio (PS3, Xbox 360, PC)
UFC Personal Trainer (PS3, Xbox 360, Wii)
Warhammer 40,000: Space Marine (PS3, Xbox 360, PC)

Ubisoft:
Assassin’s Creed Revelations (PS3, Xbox 360, PC)
Call Of Juarez: The Cartel (PS3, Xbox 360, PC)
Driver: San Francisco (PS3, Xbox 360, PC)
From Dust (PS3, Xbox 360, PC)
Ghost Recon: Future Soldier (PS3, Xbox 360, PC, DS)
Rayman Origins (PS3, Xbox 360, PC, Wii)
Rocksmith (PS3, Xbox 360, PC)

Warner Bros:
Bastion (Xbox 360, PC)
Batman: Arkham City (PS3, Xbox 360, PC)
Gotham City Imposters (PS3, Xbox 360, PC)
Green Lantern: Rise Of The Manhunters (PS3, Xbox 360, Wii, 3DS, DS)
The Lord Of The Rings: War In The North (PS3, Xbox 360, PC)
Sesame Street: Once Upon A Monster (Xbox 360)

Unconfirmed/Rumored Games
Ace Combat: Assault Horizon (PS3, Xbox 360)
Animal Crossing 3DS (3DS)
Armored Core V (PS3, Xbox 360)
Backbreaker: Vengeance (Xbox 360)
Captain America: Super Soldier (PS3, Xbox 360, Wii, 3DS, DS)
Codename Kingdoms (Xbox 360)
Dance Central 2 (Xbox 360)
Dead Rising 2: Off The Record (PS3, Xbox 360, PC)
Devil’s Third (PS3, Xbox 360)
Deus Ex: Human Revolution (PS3, Xbox 360, PC)
Doctor Lautrec And The Forgotten Knights (3DS)
Dragon’s Dogma (PS3, Xbox 360)
Far Cry 3 (PS3, Xbox 360, PC)
Final Fantasy XIII-2 (PS3, Xbox 360)
Harry Potter And The Deathly Hallows – Part 2 (PS3, Xbox 360, PC, Wii, DS)
Harvest Moon: The Tale Of Two Towns (DS, 3DS)
Insomniac/EA Mystery Title (PS3, 360)
Inversion (PS3, Xbox 360)
Kid Icarus: Uprising (3DS)
Kinect Sports 2 (Xbox 360)
Metal Gear Solid: Rising (PS3, Xbox 360, PC)
Metal Gear Solid: Snake Eater 3D (3DS)
Mario & Sonic At The London 2012 Olympics Games (Wii, 3DS)
Mario Kart 3DS (3DS)
Resident Evil 6 (PS3, 360)
Ridge Racer Unbounded (PS3, Xbox 360)
Rune Factory: Tides Of Destiny (PS3, Wii)
Sniper Elite 2 (PS3, Xbox 360)
Spec Ops: The Line (PS3, Xbox 360, PC)
Super Mario (Project Cafe)
The Walking Dead (PS3, Xbox 360, PC)
Wrecked (PS3, Xbox 360)

There’s clearly plenty there to salivate over, this years’ E3 conference is shaping up to be excellent.

LA Noire is effectively a crime thriller, boasting state-of-the-art motion capture technology and a realist 1940′s setting, so is immersing yourself in post-war Los Angeles worthy of your time and money?

Gameplay

The gameplay mechanics in LA Noire are largely similar to other current-gen Rockstar games like Grand Theft Auto IV and Red Dead Redemption, so for those who have played either of those you’ll largely know what to expect with the driving and on-foot controls for main protagonist Cole Phelps, a War Hero who decided to join the L.A.P.D once he’d served his country.  There is no jump button however which is actually a blessing, no longer will you be stuck behind a foot-high wall after mis-timing a jump during a chase or accidentally launch yourself off a six story building.

The interview process is enthralling

Throughout the game’s engrossing story you’ll be given the opportunity to interview potential witnesses and suspect on a variety of cases, and for a lot of things people say you’ll be able to decide if you think they’re telling the truth, if there’s an element of doubt in their story or if they’re flat out lying, the latter of which requires you to back up your claim with evidence.  This allows for exciting moments not only out on the streets, as interrogating people can make all the difference when it eventually comes to prosecuting a suspect.  You can use something called intuition points to either see what the LA Noire community chose or opt for a Who Wants To Be A Millionaire-style option which takes one of the three choices away.  This can prove to be very useful but sometimes it does seem to be down to pure luck as to whether you’ve chosen the right answer.

As a detective it’s all about unearthing the small details at a crime scene and at places that have anything to do with a victims last known whereabouts or the home of someone who might have had something to do with the crime.  It’s a compelling and satisfying process if you find the right piece of evidence to contradict someone’s story, which ties in with my earlier point of simple conversations often becoming incredibly exciting and interesting.

As mentioned driving and on-foot controls are responsive and easy to pick up, as are the occasional shoot-outs and brawls you’ll encounter throughout the storyline.  You can effortlessly hide behind cover and take aim at the bad guys, and for those who don’t have an accurate hand you can tinker with the auto aim settings to your liking.   The only problem here is that shooting people in the legs can be as fatal as a headshot, so here’s a tip – when chasing someone on foot you can fire a warning shot, but don’t think it’s a good idea to subdue them by taking out a leg.  It’ll often kill the person you’re pursuing and you’ll therefore fail the case.

Score – 9/10

Graphics

The advanced use of motion capture technology was one of LA Noire’s big selling points, and for the most part it works well.  Just watching people’s lips move while they talk is a visual treat and while certain emotions aren’t fully captured what they’ve accomplished is still a terrific achievement.

Los Angeles looks authentic

Elsewhere the city of Los Angeles looks fantastic, apparently around 90% of the in-game city is a replica of how the real thing looked in that era.  The city is bustling and gives a real sense of authenticity, and you’ll encounter typically suburban neighbourhoods, seedy jazz bars and beautiful mansions along with several landmark locations.

There are a couple of negative points to mention though, primarily with regards to realism.  I might be nitpicking but it bothers me when driving to a location and the screen fades to black briefly, and you’ll suddenly be approaching the building from the opposite direction – and sometimes not even in the car you were in just a moment beforehand.  There are also some pop-up issues, such as with small details like flagpoles and lampposts appearing right in front of you as you’re driving or long after everything else has loaded.  This is a very prominent if you don’t have the disk you are playing installed to your hard drive, so doing so is highly recommended.

Score – 9/10

Sound and Music

Phelps can quickly become overly-intense

As has become synonymous with Rockstar Games the voice acting in LA Noire is fantastic.  Each character is brought to life masterfully, and while our hero Cole Phelps can get a little intense at times for seemingly no reason and perhaps say things that the choice you chose wouldn’t necessarily reflect (although a possible reason for this becomes clear through the occasional flashback to the war) for the most part the voice acting comes across as realistic as possible.  However random conversations in the street aren’t as good as seen in GTA IV for example, you’ll encounter the same recycled lines with annoying regularity about how Phelps “seem like a nice guy” or informing you that you need to take a bath.

The music is typically 1940′s jazz compositions, they adequately add to the immersion but I personally haven’t noticed anything outstanding.  Most of the 95 vehicles you can drive in the game sound the same as well, but how much of that is down to the lack of variety under the hood in 1947 or not is something I’m not familiar with, but to hear every engine sound the same is nevertheless a minor flaw.

Score – 7/10

Value

I’ve put about 10 hours into LA Noire so far, and as a guess I’d say I’m not quite half way through the game.  I still have plenty of  the 40 street crimes to do as well as explore the city in full, so to get the bare minimum game completion would probably take somewhere between 20 and 25 hours.  You can also extend the experience by driving across Los Angeles yourself, you can ask whoever your partner is to drive for you a lot of the time which serves as a ‘quick jump’ to your destination.

As I write this the game is still brand new and thus retailing at full price, but it’s a worthwhile experience and in my opinion an essential purchase. Despite this there doesn’t seem to be much replay value, as no matter what the outcome of each individual case the storyline progresses in the same linear fashion.

Score – 8/10

Summary

+ Everything from car chases to simple interrogations is exciting

+ 1940′s Los Angeles looks about as authentic as it can be

+ The facial motion capture is incredible

+ The storyline is engaging

+ Should take most people at least 30 hours to complete fully

+ Great voice acting

- Some graphics glitches

- Music and sound effects are largely forgettable

- Phelps can often become intense for no reason and not reflect your choices

- While the game auto saves regularly, you can’t manually save your game

- There doesn’t seem to be any reason to replay the game once you’re done

- Early murder investigations are repetitive

Overall Score – 33/40 = 82%

SEGA of America, Inc. and SEGA Europe Ltd. today announced the upcoming re-release of Guardian Heroe, a classic Action-RPG Brawler by celebrated developers Treasure. Originally released for the SEGA Saturn™ in 1996, Guardian Heroes has been re-mastered with enhanced graphics, online co-op and battle modes, all-new modes of play, and more. The game will be available via Xbox LIVE Arcade for the Xbox 360 video game and entertainment system from Microsoft this fall.

“Ever since we began to make SEGA’s classic Dreamcast and Genesis / Mega Drive titles available for modern systems, the fan response has been overwhelming – and the demand for their favorite games has been pouring in,” said Haruki Satomi, VP of Digital Business at SEGA. “Players have been clamoring for this treasured favorite from the Saturn days, and we cannot wait to show them what we have got for them – all of the fantastic side-scrolling action, branching story paths, and distinct characters, now in a fully HD, widescreen presentation with online support. ”

Guardian Heroes brings the Saturn favorite to life with new HD graphics, presenting Treasure’s iconic fast-paced gameplay on a new generation of hardware, with all of the convenience of purchase via instant download. The game also features:

Action-RPG Brawling: Choose one of four heroes to level up and guide along a branching storyline with five different endings
Friends, Foes, and Fighters: Play the game’s Story Mode alone or with a second player, or challenge Versus Mode with up to 12 players at once
Extended Gameplay: Time Attack Mode, Arcade Mode, Arrange Mode and more allow players to explore every nuance of 45 different fighters
Fully Re-Mastered: All-new graphics and visual effects bring the classic to life in a completely high-definition, widescreen presentation

The 1996 original was well received

I’ve not played the original Guardian Heroes game myself as I never owned a Sega Saturn, but it was very well received by fans and critics alike (with an 8.9/10 aggregate score on GameRankings) and fans seem to be excited for the HD remake.  Still, you can’t beat a good classic side-scrolling game that’s widely considered to be one of the best Sega Saturn games ever made.

Now if only they’d do the same for Shenmue…

US Times (PST)

Monday, June 6th

Microsoft – 9:30 AM

Electronic Arts – 12:30 PM

Ubisoft – 2:30 PM

Sony – 5:00 PM

Tuesday, June 7th

Nintendo – 9:00 AM

UK Times (GMT)

Monday, June 6th

Microsoft – 5:30 PM

Electronic Arts – 8:30 PM

Ubisoft – 10:30 PM

Tuesday, June 7th

Sony – 01:00 AM

Nintendo – 5:00 PM

I’m a little surprised about Sony’s conference being quite late for European viewers, but then again it will only be 5pm in the States but it’s a shame anyone with work or school the following morning will probably have to miss it in Europe.  Still, it gives them that little bit of extra time to fix the PSN… thank you, I’m here all week.

E3 is something I eagerly look forward to every year, you can read my full review of last years event or my thoughts on 2009′s disastrous conference by Nintendo which certainly proves that.  This years’ event is shaping up to be quite intriguing, no doubt both Microsoft and Nintendo will capitalise on Sony’s problems at the moment so they’ll have to provide a spectacular conference to get people back on their side again.  Look out for an E3 preview post nearer the time on DTO as well.

Changeable weather is just one of the new features in DiRT 3

Codemasters, the development team behind such game series as TOCA and Race Driver (including Grid) have released a new gameplay trailer for their upcoming racer DiRT 3, and it’s looking good.  Several new features have been showcased including old favourites rallying and rally cross, but new features include Gymkhana (time/speed events involving weaving through cones, tyres, barrels etc), weather conditions that include snow and day/night cycles and a number of new racing locations.

In what has no doubt been devised to persuade people to pre-order the game rather than buy pre-owned as Codemasters won’t see any money on pre-owed sales, people who do pre-order DiRT 3 from selected retailers will receive a special ‘Superteam Pack’ which consists of the following events and cars:

Bonus Events
Rockstar Superstars — Rockstar Transworld Clash
Oakley Superstars – Oakley Pro Invitational
Nixon Superstars – Nixon Gold Series
Monster Superstars – Monster Energy All Star Showdown

Texaco Racing Team
Ford Fiesta Open Class
Opel Manta 400
Monster Sport SX4 Hillclimb Special
Stadium Truck

Brembo Racing Team
Fiat 131 Abarth
Toyota Tacoma
Abarth Grande Punto S2000
Stadium Buggy

Team Yokohama
Lancia Delta HF Integrale
Renault Alpine A110 1600S
Mitsubishi Lancer Evo X JUN

Mobil 1 Performance Team
Audi Sport Quattro Rallye
Ford RS200 RallyX
VW Race Touareg 2

Not a bad incentive seeing as the Superteam Pack will probably cost quite a lot to buy separately, and while the aforementioned selected retailers haven’t been selected yet it does seem like Gamestop in the United States will be.  I’ll update this post when I know more.

DiRT 3 is scheduled to be released worldwide on May 24th, 2011 on Xbox 360, Playstation 3 and PC.  And now for the trailer: